How Pharma Engages With Its Followers Online

Pharma is investing more heavily in social media than ever before; tweets are up 530% since 2013 and Twitter followers have increased by nearly 300%. So far, so good. Because more followers means more opportunities to get involved, and the more impact you make online, right?

But engaging in genuine, meaningful conversations about a corporate brand isn’t easy, and it’s important to ensure we don’t fall into the trap of focusing too much on numbers and not enough on engagement. Companies need to ensure they don’t build followers just to push out messages to anyone willing to pay attention. While people are increasingly more open to finding new knowledge on social media, they don’t want to wade through hundreds of pages of information, images or tweets to do so.

The balance between community size versus engagement is becoming more and more of a priority, and formed one of the focus areas for a recent report published by Ogilvy Healthworld, part of Ogilvy CommonHealth Worldwide (the health behavior specialists of Ogilvy & Mather).The report, Connecting the Dots: Which Pharma Companies Are Succeeding in the Social Media Space?, was the first of its kind to provide insights into which pharma companies are leading the way in integrated social media marketing strategies.

“We know that some pharma companies have been cautious in their approach to social media, but our report clearly demonstrates a dramatic and successful increase in activity,” said Rebecca Canvin, Social Media Manager at Ogilvy Healthworld, adding: “Social media has changed the way pharma companies communicate—it allows them to build corporate reputation and engage in genuine, meaningful conversations with audiences. For companies who want to stand out from the crowd, it’s time to be brave, get personal, educate and integrate social media into their wider marketing strategy.”

Interestingly, companies that ranked most highly in the audit weren’t necessarily those with the largest communities, but those who engaged their audiences through frequent activity. And it’s not hard to understand why the more active companies enjoy the most engagement with their followers—after all, social media in its very nature demands participation and interaction. But the companies that do it well manage to create content that is less about the organization and more about connection points or interests that followers share.

The report highlights that although the focus for pharma companies is still on building brand profile, the priority is turning to attracting, keeping and engaging with loyal followers. And to do this, the onus needs to shift to “quality over quantity.” It’s more powerful to engage with a small group of passionate followers, whether they’re consumers, doctors or media, than to blast one message to 10,000 followers and “see what sticks.”

And loyal followers will reward companies who engage continuously in this way—so really, shouldn’t we all be asking, how much does size matter?

To find out more on Connecting the Dots: Which Pharma Companies Are Succeeding in the Social Media Space? please visit: http://bit.ly/1P5R5Ws

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Around the world, one in every four people is using social media. Whether they are sharing a funny cat video, advice on dating, or their personal experiences living with a chronic illness, there are nearly two billion people connecting with one another through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other social platforms, forever transforming the way humans communicate. This social media ecosystem also is ushering in a “digital health revolution.” Whether through their desktops, laptops, or mobile devices, people seeking medical and wellness information first check with their social networks.

Pharmaceutical companies have started entering the social media waters – — most with one toe in first. Given the increasing dependence on the digital world, social media is a natural touch point for companies to connect with the patients and healthcare providers (HCPs) they serve. Becoming truly social has not been an easy proposition for a conservative industry. But we have reached a tipping point, where social interaction is becoming critically important for the industry, and one that is blowing the lid off of the traditional way of communicating with stakeholders.

In the old paradigm, a pharmaceutical brand issues an advertisement that directs patients and HCPs to a website where they are provided one-sided information and an overall static experience. Patients are then directed to “talk to your doctor,” and that is where the interaction ends. Within the new social paradigm, patients, HCPs and pharmaceutical companies can have real conversations about the topics that are important to all of them. Patients also can access information and answers to their questions much faster, thereby making their path to help shorter.

Pharmaceutical companies have an opportunity to interact with patients and HCPs in a more meaningful way through social media. At Ogilvy, we are helping our pharmaceutical clients navigate this new paradigm and create unbranded social networks that offer patients who have similar life experiences – — whether that is quitting smoking or managing cancer – — a safe and comfortable environment to listen, learn, and share. We believe these networks offer unique value to the industry, allowing companies to provide patients with a support system where such a community may not otherwise exist.

Social networks resolve the limitations of both time and geography that are inherent with in-person support groups. They allow people to access information targeted to their concerns and conversations with global peers at any hour from the comfort and privacy of their own couch. Social networks also empower patients to initiate and direct conversations, interacting in a way that is meaningful to them. These networks are already forming, and we believe it is vital for industry to take the lead, to serve as the connector of those conversations, and to interact so that patients are assured they are receiving the best quality and most credible information.

The social media world has clearly shifted communication patterns and habits. Pharmaceutical companies can no longer afford to remain disconnected. Social interaction and sharing will continue whether or not the industry gets more involved. By taking a more active role within these patient communities, a pharmaceutical company allows its own voice and expertise to be heard, provides its stakeholders with real value, and, equally important, ensures that competitors aren’t the only ones creating meaningful interactions and relationships with consumers.

Did you realise that the average attention span of a person has dropped to only 8 seconds? That’s one second less than a goldfish!

Video can combat this. It is a fantastic way to hook people in and capture their attention. Online video is growing so quickly that this is an opportunity that’s impossible to ignore:

Views on mobile devices have increased 400% in the past 2 years

YouTube is now the second most popular search engine behind Google, with 40% of its traffic coming from mobile

80% of online visitors will watch a video all the way through, compared with 20% who will read a webpage

Patients are being diagnosed via video, surgeons are swapping clips on operation techniques, and, as everyone is rapidly becoming more and more mobile-connected, healthcare knowledge sharing will soon have no boundaries.

It’s likely that for whatever purpose, be it for a symposium or for patient education, your video will end up online, where it will receive the majority of its views. But it’s a noisy world out there, and one rule is key: keep it short, smart, and snappy.

What kind of video content should you choose?

The great news is that there are all kinds of exciting options that won’t break the budget. Think about who the audience is and how they’ll be watching. Are they using a small screen? With or without sound? On social media? Or at a live presentation…could Dr Smith at the back please put his mobile down and watch? (Hopefully if he enjoys it he’ll search for it later online, “like” it and share with his colleagues.)

Explore the different ways to connect with your audience. Enriched video content is great for increasing user engagement, and interactive user-defined storytelling can be a totally immersive experience. It lets you get the right messages to each individual user by letting them click on objects in the video to influence what they see. “Choose a Different Ending” is a beautiful example of a great campaign tackling knife crime that drew immediate response. And another of the best ones I’ve seen recently is “The Other Side of Honda.”

Or, if you need to get more complex data across in a way that quickly informs and engages, use an animated infographic to make data come alive. These motion graphics pack a huge visual punch, are bursting with information, and are rapidly becoming key tools to promote branded messages. For a truly multi-layered, fast and constantly moving example with beautiful visual transitions, you can’t beat “STUXNET: The Virus That Almost Started WW3.”

Whatever you want to achieve, remember you’re not alone. We recommend that you use a Creative and Motion team to help you get all those questions answered on the way to making great videos.

Video is a super strategy to stand out from the competition and it’s definitely a healthcare trend that’s already here and set to keep on growing.

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For me it is fitness. Running, triathlon, setting goals, eating clean, and having a training plan. That’s the glue that keeps it together for me, the hub around which my world revolves. When I am working towards a new goal, it makes me more balanced, positive and happy.

For others it’s other physical activity: yoga, cross-fit, hiking. Or other ways of being healthy: being a vegan, eating paleo, meditation. Or for you, it could be external: your pet, your children, your significant other. Your house, your car, your boat. It’s what you brag about, how you improve yourself, the destination and the journey. We all have something that feeds and rewards us, holds us together in mind and body and spirit. That’s our glue. One key to success and balance is to figure out what, exactly, your glue is.

So what is the glue at Ogilvy CommonHealth Worldwide? Or rather, who?

Who is usually the first one in the office, and the last to leave? Who can rattle off the status of two dozen jobs from memory in 10 minutes during hot sheet? Who do we see in the corridors lugging those big job bags from floor to floor, securing, organizing or maintaining job cards, status reports, cover sheets, portal links, med/legal submissions, tagging and linking, night coverage plans, weekend plans, job number lists, finance reports, archiving, uploading files, downloading files, launches, RFPs, pitches, comps, spec sheets….

The glue that holds an ad agency together is the Traffic Coordination department, now known as Project Coordination (PC). PC is the hub of it all—from inception to completion, this group shepherds jobs from manuscript to release. PC works with every department—edit, copy, art, studio, account, business management, finance, project management, and production. If you don’t know something about an account, ask PC. There’s no better launch pad for new account executives or other staff positions at our agency than PC.

PC is a great place to learn, and a great place to stay. It’s everyone else’s glue, and it’s what makes us whole. It’s my glue too. What’s yours?

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It’s not very often I find myself marveling at a brand’s attempt to “co-opt” an opportunity or marketing “tie-in” to generate awareness and grow their brand. But I’ve really got to give it to GSK and their brilliant tie-in to California Chrome and the Belmont Stakes.

They did not horse around and brilliantly seized the moment for their Breathe Right brand. June is prime allergy season, so for nasal sufferers and excessive snorers, it was a perfect time to raise brand awareness.

The Belmont Stakes, the annual thoroughbred race in New York, was expected to draw in a larger-than-normal crowd due to the media frenzy around California Chrome’s bid to win the Triple Crown. Stir in a little controversy over whether to allow the nasal strips that California Chrome wears, and you’ve got yourself a beautiful opportunity to jump in and make some noise.

Enter GSK. They signed on as an official sponsor of both the Belmont Stakes and California Chrome. They launched a huge PR effort, including publicity shots of the horse’s owners posing with Breathe Right strips, a new TV ad “Bed Time Stakes” featuring a jockey getting a good night’s sleep thanks to his strips, a social media campaign with tons of online chatter, and distribution of 50,000 samples at the actual event.

GSK took advantage of the 3Ms—Media, Momentum and Multichannel—so frankly whether California Chrome won the Triple Crown or not, they turned up a winner. Seriously, how often would anyone be talking this much about nasal strips? That’s how to milk a horse.

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Watching the BBC news the other night, my partner Ben turned to me and asked, “What’s wrong with that reporter’s eyes? It looks like he’s checking himself out in a mirror somewhere.” He was right, the reporter was checking himself out, but it wasn’t in a mirror – he was looking at himself in the viewfinder of his video camera. Much like Tom Daly in his famous ‘coming out’ video – this journalist was recording himself, making the rookie mistake of not locking eyes on the lens, but rather admiring himself.

Video journalism, where the TV news reporter has no crew and does everything themselves, is not new. In fact a decade ago, it was touted as a great way to break into the industry as a rookie reporter. Usually video journalists worked for small television stations or were covering stories in remote parts of the world – on their own. Few people wanted to do it, so video journalism was reserved for stories which didn’t warrant standard quality pictures or audio – I mean you can forgive the shaky or out of focus pictures when the story is coming from war-torn Bosnia!

In this instance, however, the story was coming from the relative safety of East London. Why then, with Broadcasting House virtually in shouting distance, is the Capital’s premier news service using video journalists? The fact is, video journalism has become mainstream and is virtually compulsory on metropolitan newscasts and 24 hour news channels. As public relations practitioners, we’re acutely aware of shrinking newsrooms and cuts to editorial staff across the news media – and healthcare media are no exception. The rise of video journalism is one way on-the-spot reporting has survived in a budget conscious media environment. In fact, some online medical media outlets have actually grown their video news in recent years.

So, in a post ‘information superhighway’ world (remember that chestnut?) where to for journalism? The truth is, news tastes are driven by the audience and as an audience, we’re increasingly less willing to wait for carefully gathered, edited and produced news. Journalism today is a constant tug-of-war between getting it right and getting it right now – and it’s hard to foresee this trend changing.

Immediacy is increasingly trumping quality as a battle for the ever illusive scope wages on. Journalists are fighting bloggers, gossip merchants and even Joe Public to break a story. The only trouble is, professional journalists have the onus of at least trying to get the facts right.

So not only must a journalist get the story out first, she must also be seen as an authority on the matter and be the most prolific reporter. How else would she have any cred on Twitter? When success as a journalist can equally be measured in Twitter followers as the quality of their work – journalism today requires balancing one’s online clout with actually producing quality news copy. So worried is the BBC about the focus moving toward the former, it issued guidelines in 2012 warning journalists not to break a story on Twitter before informing their newsroom colleagues.

As PR’s, we’re increasingly aware of evolving our output to service the needs of the busy multi-platform journitator. After some tweetable nuggets? Every press release will contain some. Need an on-the-spot TV studio for a quick video interview? We’ve got one waiting for you. Want to write your story two weeks in advance for an autofile while you’re trekking in the Himalayas? No problem, we’ll sort you out with an embargoed brief and interview.

It’s hard to say how journalism will evolve over the next decade, but it’s clear the pressure for immediacy is about as high as it could possibly get. With this immediacy comes a power shift from the outlet to the story teller themselves. For the time being at least, this opens up a broad opportunity for PR’s to offer tailored content across multiple platforms – albeit to a shrinking number of journalists.

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Most of us are far too young to remember the early days of television. What I do recall from my childhood is that three networks owned the airwaves, large numbers of people followed a small number of notable programs, and the screen turned to fuzz at midnight. You made note of the TV Guide schedule, and you adjusted your schedule to the TV shows that interested you. The networks and the stars were in charge.

A lot has changed since then, obviously. There are now countless networks, and seemingly limitless numbers of shows. Reality television has made stars of “ordinary” people. And the digital age has made scheduled programming obsolete—the content follows you and adjusts to your life and device of choice, not the other way around.

Why wax nostalgic about the evolution of broadcast television? Because I believe a similarly dramatic transformation is under way in our field. The old channels and choices are fading to fuzz. A new era is dawning.

For years, healthcare PR relied on a few channels and reliable choices to reach, inform, and market to patients. On behalf of our clients, we used traditional media (earned and paid), events, celebrities and big disease education programs to build awareness and get patients to “talk to their doctors about…”

Today—as more of the burden of choice, comparison, and cost gets shifted to patients, as diseases become more and more categorized via genomic analysis and molecular diagnostics, as medical practice and health become more universally digitized, and physicians and pharma become more responsible for outcomes vs. treatments—the traditional big, broad-channel approaches are becoming less relevant and effective as a means of reaching more and more narrowly defined populations of patients.

These trends are leading to the establishment of entirely new channels and networks, made of up patients identified and aggregated virtually through the sharing of personal medical information and data. In other words, the audience is creating the network, and continually informing the programming through the data they share. Now, rather than casting a wide net via mass media and hoping a narrow audience will be watching, we will have ready-made networks, open 24/7, waiting if not demanding to be engaged. This opens up new frontiers for micro-targeted, real-time communication and measurable engagement, based almost exclusively on digital content and social influence.

Not long before the holidays we learned that Feinstein Kean Healthcare (FKH) and a select group of partners won a million-dollar government grant to develop a “patient-powered research network” for the multiple sclerosis community. This is an exciting development, but not because of the money. This new kind of network represents the leading edge of the transformation I’ve described, and we’re now right at the forefront as well.

In the days and months ahead, we’ll continue to evaluate the pace and progress of change, and work to assure that our thinking and services are aligned with where the world is headed. Naturally, we don’t want to get too far out ahead of the trend, but we must be informed and equipped to lead when the market is ready.

I believe, as this new era unfolds, we will find there are many exciting opportunities ahead for us to engage differently and far more meaningfully with patients.

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Did all PR professionals feel a slight shudder of fear upon hearing that Ashley Brown, digital communications and social media lead for The Coca-Cola Company, has vowed to “kill the press release”? I did, but only for a moment. After all, Mr. Brown’s proclamation came during a presentation called “Brand journalism at Coca-Cola: Content, data, and cutting through noise,” where he was outlining the company’s content marketing strategy. Content marketing is the most exciting, and some would say revolutionary, marketing innovation in recent years. It puts the consumer, rather than the brand, at the centre of communications. Instead of pushing out brand messages, content marketers are creating videos, infographics and other pieces of engaging, sharable content that respond to consumer desires and needs, thus creating brand awareness and loyalty.

But why should this mean the death of the press release? In healthcare communications, press releases are a fundamental tool for communicating complex data about diseases and new treatments. Without press releases, reporters working on daily or hourly deadlines would find it nearly impossible to sift through and decipher the news from every clinical trial published in a peer-reviewed journal. A well-crafted press release can help a journalist understand how a p value translates into clinical value for a patient.

Instead of being replaced by content, should press releases be considered a medium for delivering content? Multimedia press releases containing video clips, visuals, infographics and animations are replacing the standard written-word-only release. In addition, with the proliferation of online medical news websites and portals, press releases are increasingly being published in full rather than being used as background information for a news item.

PR professionals can embrace this and ensure that press releases are optimised for search, by judicious use of keywords in headlines and the first paragraph. We can optimise for sharing by crafting “tweet ready” headlines. We can consider the press release a starting point for telling a rich and rounded story that is expressed through a variety of content.

Content marketing is a brave new world for pharma marketers and healthcare communications, and I look forward to taking clients on this journey. However we cannot leave the press release behind. Long live the press release!

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The Fellowship Scheme at Ogilvy Healthworld in London is one of the most comprehensive in the field. Fellows spend two years rotating through core disciplines of Advertising, Market Access, Medical Education, PR, Digital and Strategy/Planning. The scheme involves a combination of training, coaching, assignments and project work. Claire Lormor, who started in September 2012, reveals what it is really like.

The selection process

Once I had submitted an essay, filled out a comprehensive questionnaire and got through two rounds of agonising interviews, you would have thought I gained myself a nice little place on the sofa of successful Ogilvy Healthworld fellows. No. It wasn’t until I got invited to an “assessment day” that I realised the real selection process had only just begun.

I arrived early on the assessment day, but I was still one of the last to arrive due to the number of keen beans who believe that you will automatically get a job if you arrive to an interview three hours early. After talking to the other potential fellows for about a minute, I realised that they all seemed to have spent the last two years in the industry or getting to know everything about the industry, whereas I had shamelessly spent the last two years travelling the world and doing ski seasons. My nerves were definitely getting the better of me. Luckily the pain au chocolat, Ogilvy branded M&Ms and the concept of a Friday drinks trolley were enough for me to calm down and remember why I really wanted this job.

The main focus of the day was our individual two-minute presentations, where we had to explain to the jury (board of directors) and the other fellows why an object of choice best described ourselves. Some were weird and some were wonderful. People described objects such as water bottles, eggs, books, spectacles and sailing masts. I still don’t know how Ogilvy analysed our presentations; maybe it was just for comedy value!

When the presentations, interviews, brainstorms and team exercises came to a close, we all went our separate ways and waited for the call. I am sure you are not on the edge of your seat wondering whether I got the job or not, but I would like to confirm that I did, and I am now an Ogilvy Healthworld fellow who thoroughly enjoys being lost in the world of health comms.

Moving to London

A great summer of relaxation before I start my fellowship: tick.

A car full of clothes ready to travel 300 miles to London: tick.

A house in London: oh no.

How can someone who knows London about as well as they know the North Pole decide where they want to live? You can’t just ask your friends or colleagues, because wherever they live is “definitely the best place to live.” You can’t ask your parents because they will say the safest place in London, which is guaranteed to be the dullest. You can’t couch-surf because everyone will judge you for being a 23-year-old young professional living on someone’s couch. And you can’t stay in a hotel because one night would cost a year’s wages (not quite).

After spending weeks wandering the streets of London and going to numerous restaurants and bars (it was awful), I decided on an area which I thought would be the best place for me to eat, drink, shop and sleep. It may sound like your idea of hell, but after a lot of strange phone calls and awkward viewings I am happy to say that I am the proud owner of a room in an eight-bed house in the centre of Clapham Junction with other 20-somethings who enjoy working during the week and partying on the weekend.

The other fellows

They say you can find everything on the Internet, but they also said that the world was going to end…weeks ago.

As soon as I found out I was going to be a fellow, I naturally went straight to Google/Facebook to see if I could identify who the other selected fellows were. Ogilvy managed to keep this information from us until our very first day of the fellowship. It was then that I was introduced to Emma (the spectacles girl), James (the sailing mast boy), Pippa (the hockey top girl), Houda (the framed letter girl), Sophie (the Rolling Stones record girl) and Izzy (the can of Foamburst girl).

Not a bad bunch to spend the next two years with!

My first rotation

The fellowship scheme is for people who know they want to be in health comms but are unsure of what area they want to go into. To cater to our indecisiveness, the fellows and I are placed in three of the five departments over the course of two years in the hope that we find our feet and decide what we want to do with our life along the way.

I was delighted when I was told that my first rotation would be in PR, but at the same time I had no idea what PR was. Five months down the line and to me PR means: general admin, media monitoring, budget tracking, long hours and plenty of meetings. However, it also means: working as a team, keeping up-to-date with the pharmaceutical industry, liaising with clients, organising events, communicating with medics around the world, and assisting in the launch of new healthcare products. It’s a hard knock life in PR, but in the world of healthcare comms hard work never goes unnoticed.

As a whole, my experience in Ogilvy Healthworld has been thoroughly enjoyable. If the interesting world of healthcare, a great group of people, a friendly atmosphere, and a cake for everyone’s birthday isn’t a reason to get up in the morning, I don’t know what is. I am very much looking forward to my next 18 months as a fellow and I hope to experience more of what Ogilvy Healthworld and London have to offer!

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One of the foundations of effective public relations is establishing strong relationships with potential advocates for a cause, brand or company. In the pharma industry, one of the most critical allies is the patient advocacy group (PAG) sector. Whether it’s securing optimal market access, or gaining access to funding for outreach and awareness activities, the industry and PAGs need each other’s support like never before.

The good news is that a recent survey by PatientView of 850 international, national or large regional patients’ groups found that about half of the groups have current or past relationships with pharma companies. Of those, about 85% say their relationship is good.

But there may be some suspicion lurking beneath the surface—another survey by the same organization reported that only 37% of PAGs considered pharma companies trustworthy.

So how can we as consultancies help foster mutually beneficial relationships based on a foundation of trust?

One way is to ensure that we start with solid knowledge of how advocacy groups are formed and operate, which in turn helps us understand their drivers and motivations.

Apatient group’s evolution broadly follows some key stages:

An individual (usually someone personally affected by a specific disease) recognizes the need to do something to improve the situation and starts to act.

Raising a group’s profile and securing more funds to support its work.

Greater professionalism and a more businesslike approach to operations, such as forming a board of directors.

Registering as a charity.

Geographical expansion and service diversification.

Mergers and growth.

Establishing international networks and influence.

Pharma companies are likely to form alliances with PAGs in the later stages of their evolution, but it is important to remember that they have usually grown out of one individual’s vision and mission.

Building trust is critical—and that means being transparent and reliable. There are plenty of regulations governing financial transparency surrounding pharma/PAG relationships, but it is just as important to be transparent about our aims and objectives when partnering on a campaign or other project. PAG partners also value stability in a relationship—no one likes to be dropped after a project is completed or have their key contacts constantly changing.

Finally, we need to remember that the value exchange in the relationship doesn’t always need to be financially based. Pharma companies, and their consultancies, hold a wealth of knowledge, expertise and services that PAGs may not be able to access otherwise. Providing help with business planning, market research, public relations, insight into health service reforms, organization and operational development, and process and systems analytics may provide value far beyond that of a non-restricted educational grant.

As a consultancy, it is often our job to help form and manage these critical relationships, and we can best do this by being the advocates for the advocates.